pharmacy expirence

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manogamez

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  1. Pre-Pharmacy
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😛 Hello,
I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me how they were able to find volunteer work at a pharmacy.
Can I just go to any pharmacy and speak to the pharmacist there directly?
Also, what kind of tasks do they assign?

Thanks
 
Good questions. I believe you just go asking around. However, I would also like to know whether the tasks they give are worthy enough or not.
 
manogamez said:
😛 Hello,
I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me how they were able to find volunteer work at a pharmacy.
Can I just go to any pharmacy and speak to the pharmacist there directly?
Also, what kind of tasks do they assign?

Thanks

Just get on the phone, call, and ask for the manager. Repeat as necessary.

If you are volunteering, you will likely be limited to B tech stuff, cashiering, and hopefully if the pharmacist is nice, a little shadowing. I would imagine for a while they would have their eye on you pretty close in case you were a seeker.
 
You can try your internship center at school perhaps? I have an internship at a retail pharmacy, I got it through our pre-health internship center.
 
Call the hospitals in your area. There are a lot of volunteer position that needs to be fill and just request that your interest in volunteering in the pharmacy. I did that and was volunteering at the VA during the weekdays. I put in about 4 hours a day or as much as my school schedule will allow me.
 
SunflowerTea said:
Call the hospitals in your area. There are a lot of volunteer position that needs to be fill and just request that your interest in volunteering in the pharmacy. I did that and was volunteering at the VA during the weekdays. I put in about 4 hours a day or as much as my school schedule will allow me.

For me, I made more progress actually GOING to the various pharmacies rather than just calling them. People like to give you the run-around on the phone. And as far as it being "worthy" or not, with the application process being as competitive as it is, ANY exposure that you can get in a pharmacy setting is worth it. At the very least you may be able to get someone in the pharmacy where you are volunteering to write one of your LORs.
 
UN4GETTABLE said:
For me, I made more progress actually GOING to the various pharmacies rather than just calling them. People like to give you the run-around on the phone. And as far as it being "worthy" or not, with the application process being as competitive as it is, ANY exposure that you can get in a pharmacy setting is worth it. At the very least you may be able to get someone in the pharmacy where you are volunteering to write one of your LORs.


Hi un4gettable
I've been volunteering in a hospital's pharmacy for a week now, but I've been only ER's waiter... 🙁 taking medication to The ER not even to patients. So, there is not really many things you can learn.
Do you think shadowing at a community pharmacy, or shadowing in general would be much rewarding than just volunteering in a hospital since most pharmacists are pretty busy in hospitals?
thanks
 
ForeverPharm said:
Hi un4gettable
I've been volunteering in a hospital's pharmacy for a week now, but I've been only ER's waiter... 🙁 taking medication to The ER not even to patients. So, there is not really many things you can learn.
Do you think shadowing at a community pharmacy, or shadowing in general would be much rewarding than just volunteering in a hospital since most pharmacists are pretty busy in hospitals?
thanks
ForeverPharm,

Personally, I don't think that volunteering in the hospital, just for volunteering's sake is going to get you much pharmacy expericene, unless of course, you actually are volunteering in the hospital's pharmacy.

Have you tried going to the pharmacy and asking if you could volunteer there? I have had success with finding 2 hospital pharmacies that allowed me to volunteer. Just tell them what you are wanting (ie. you are a prepharm student looking to gain some experience) I told the pharmacy director where I got my volunteer positions that I wanted to make sure that this is definitely the path that I want to take and any exposure that I can get (whether it is hands-on or through osmosis by just being in the pharmacy environment) will be very beneficial to me.

Shadowing in a community pharmacy will (in my opinion) be better than being the ER's waiter! But maybe try going to the pharmacy at the hospital and asking them if you could help them out with some volunteer hours.

Good luck!
 
UN4GETTABLE said:
ForeverPharm,

Personally, I don't think that volunteering in the hospital, just for volunteering's sake is going to get you much pharmacy expericene, unless of course, you actually are volunteering in the hospital's pharmacy.

Have you tried going to the pharmacy and asking if you could volunteer there? I have had success with finding 2 hospital pharmacies that allowed me to volunteer. Just tell them what you are wanting (ie. you are a prepharm student looking to gain some experience) I told the pharmacy director where I got my volunteer positions that I wanted to make sure that this is definitely the path that I want to take and any exposure that I can get (whether it is hands-on or through osmosis by just being in the pharmacy environment) will be very beneficial to me.

Shadowing in a community pharmacy will (in my opinion) be better than being the ER's waiter! But maybe try going to the pharmacy at the hospital and asking them if you could help them out with some volunteer hours.

Good luck!
Thank for the feed back,

I do actualy volunteer at the hspital's pharmacy, Though, it is the where they distribute medication to the hospital itself. (in my case mostly ER)
I've tried asking the Clinical pharmacist to shadow him, but he is all over the place and don't have time.
But I'll take your advice. I'll call community pharmacies and try to volunteer there.

Good luck to you too!
 
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